Students Get Down On Dirty Island Debris Blamed On Fishermen, Boaters

Boaters praise the unique location of Peanut Island and its Coast Guard station, in the middle of the Intracoastal Waterway at the mouth of Lake Worth Inlet.

But the island`s beaches are also in the way of floating debris from the nearby Port of Palm Beach and the steady inlet traffic.

About 30 students from Palm Beach Atlantic College donated their time and labor on Saturday to help collect and sort mounds of trash collected from the island.

Many boaters use Peanut Island for weekend picnics, but Coast Guard officers say that the occasional parties don`t contribute heavily to the mess.

``The problem comes from careless boaters who just don`t give a damn,`` said Coast Guard Petty Officer Sandra Brammeier. ``The sea turtles and other animals eat that stuff and it kills them.``

The volunteers are part of Palm Beach Atlantic`s Workship Program, which offers the students` services to various county agencies and private organizations.

``It makes them aware that there are needs out there in the community,`` instructor Robert Boring said. ``Next week we`re going to a nursing home to help with the senior citizens.``

Palm Beach Atlantic, a Baptist college in downtown West Palm Beach, began the Workshop Program to give the students exposure to different facets of the community, Boring said.

``I tell them that they`re expected to work, but to have fun doing it,`` Boring said.

Some of the students began having fun by singing spirituals during the brief boat trip to the island. Once the cleanup for the group CleenSweep began, Babs Barr and Tomoko Goto said they were enjoying themselves as they picked through the sand to find scraps of plastic and discarded plastic-foam cups.

The students scoured the beaches and wooded areas of the island, picking up all types of trash and separating it into recyclable plastic, aluminum and other categories of waste.

The plastic bags they used to carry the trash were biodegradable.

``We are really going to concentrate on recycling,`` said CleenSweep Chairman Doreen Trotzier, who is known among county environmental groups as ``Countess.``

She followed the packs of students with a checklist to tally the exact amount and nature of the collected trash.

``We are trying to find out what the largest amount of garbage is,`` she said. Topping the list were old strands of rope, various types of plastic and plastic-foam cups.

``It indicates that the fishermen and recreational boaters are causing most of it,`` she said, then pointed to a fishing net entwined among tree roots. ``This is a perfect example of people going out and dirtying our beaches and oceans.``

The island`s beaches are scheduled to get another cleaning next week, by members of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club, during a major countywide cleanup.